Definition of "yew"

yew¹

/juː/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural yews
1. (countable) A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.
  Quotations
  Old Yew, which graspest at the stones⁠That name the under-lying dead,⁠Thy fibres net the dreamless head,Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto II
  Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.
  1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273
2. (countable, by extension) Any tree or shrub of the genus Taxus.
3. Other conifers resembling plants in genus Taxus
  1. in family Podocarpaceae
  2. in family Cephalotaxaceae
4. (uncountable) The wood of the such trees.
  Quotations
  To prevent a too great consumption of yew, bowyers were directed to make four bows of witch-hazel, ash or elm, to one of yew, and no person under seventeen years of age, unless possessed of moveables worth forty marks, of the son of parents having an estate of ten pounds per annum might shoot in an yew bow, under a penalty of 6s. 8d.
  1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37
5. A bow for archery, made of yew wood.
adjective
not comparable
1. Made from the wood of the yew tree.

yew²

pronoun
1. Eye dialect spelling of you.
  Quotations
  A spinoff, “Major Crimes,” starring “Battlestar Galactica” veteran Mary McDonnell and a number of “Closer” cast members, premieres in August. Sedgwick won’t be among them, swapping Brenda’s syrupy “thank yew” for an upbeat “buh-bye now” to her co-workers.
  2012 July 1, T.L. Stanley, “No more crimes for her to solve”, in Los Angeles Times‎